This blog exists to support liberatory collectivist activism that is anti-patriarchy, anti-colonialism, and anti-capitalism. It also seeks to center the experiences, theories, and agendas of radical and feminist women of color.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Got Cash?Money can't buy me love but it's what you'll need to get a Green Card and become a U.S. citizen. Details below.

Then President Richard Nixon didn't want John Lennon to be a permanent resident of the U.S. He wanted him out of the country. Nixon and his government thugs worked very hard to get him out because they feared John could be a leader of radical revolutionary movements to end corrupt and horrendously murderous military actions in Southeast Asia being defended and promoted by Nixon. They lost, but it took a long, expensive battle for John to be able to live here, until he was assassinated by a white man who was free to travel from Hawai'i to New York, no problem.

Money speaks. It is fluent in many languages.
Money keeps people from being homeless.
Money keeps people from being poor.
Money purchases food, water, and health care.
Money keeps people from being exploited and assaulted in various ways.

If you're poor, where you can go, what you can do, where you can visit, vacation, take holiday, is all very limited. I remember reading a book by a Black Caribbean woman (I can't find the book. It was either by Michelle Cliff or Jamaica Kincaid. It may be a written piece recited by Ms. Kincaid in the must-see movie, Life and Debt. It may be in Ms. Cliff's book, Abeng.) But the writing described, quite emotionally and effectively, the experience of a woman, a woman who was poor, Black, and Caribbean, who was watching white tourists get off a cruise ship, not feeling resentment so much as a longing to be able to travel on a cruise ship some day. (If anyone knows the work, please email me or submit it as a comment to this blog post.)

One privilege, or form of institutionalised, regionalised power is the ability to move about. From place to place. To move from one region to another. To leave one's own country or return to it. Ableism isn't only an issue of getting from home to car to office building. Or from building to street. It may be a matter of getting off the street, after years of living on it. Or a matter of getting safely away from a child molester, batterer, or serial rapist who gave you his last name. Or out of a country that has targeted you and your people to be harassed and murdered.

As you glance over the privileges or entitlements offered below, ask yourself: Which people in the U.S., or anywhere else in the world, have them? Black people? Brown people? Muslim people? Indigenous people? Asian people--particularly Central Asian people? Women across ethnicity? Children? Trafficked and enslaved people? Poor people? Working class people?

You can become a U.S. citizen once you have been a permanent resident for more than five years

II.

Requirements for the Green Card: EB-5

You may be eligible for Green Card through investment by having invested or be in the process of investing the required amount of money in a new commercial enterprise in the U.S. The investment must benefit the U.S. economy and create the requisite number of full-time jobs for qualified persons within the U.S.

A.

Creating a New Commercial Enterprise

You may create a new commercial enterprise by:

1.

Creating an original business

2.

Purchasing an existing business and simultaneously or subsequently restructuring or reorganizing the business such that a new commercial enterprise results

3.

Expanding an existing business by 140 per cent of the pre-investment number of jobs or net worth, or retaining all existing jobs in a troubled business that has lost 20 per cent of its net worth over the past 12 to 24 months

B.

Investing in a New Commercial Enterprise

You must have invested or be actively in the process of investing at least $1,000,000 in the new commercial enterprise, unless the investment is to be made in a targeted employment area, in which case the investment must be at least $500,000

C.

Benefit the U.S. Economy and Create Jobs

Your engagement in a new commercial enterprise must benefit the U.S. economy and:

1.

Create full-time employment for not fewer than ten qualified individuals, or

2.

Maintain the number of existing employees at no less than the pre-investment level for a period of at least two years, where the capital investment is being made in a "troubled business," which is a business that has been in existence for at least two years and that has lost 20 per cent of its net worth over the past 12 to 24 months